Since this site features the Maranatha-Et in Arcadia Ego puzzle book (using it like a labyrinth of words to explore), it only seems appropriate to have Duncan Burden be one of the first to take part in Six Questions. It is always a great pleasure to hear fascinating perspectives and ideas from people actively pursuing their interests. And although the puzzle competition has ended for both the puzzlers and the creators, the journey continues for all. I, along with many others, enjoy the fascinating quest of discovery of which the hunt inspired. I was excited for the opportunity to ask Duncan about ‘life after the puzzle’.
- Q1) In order to have created such a wide reaching puzzle, you must have researched the many topics and subjects included in the puzzle yourself. I am sure I speak for many when I say the search for knowledge doesn’t just stop. What are some of the interests which you continue to study?
Hello, well, with the end of the puzzle and my responsibilities to that, I have been lucky enough to go back to my core interest, which is Freemasonry. I was fascinated by it as a child, with dreams of it being a secret society designed to either underpin society with philosophical ideals of Plato’s Republic, or to be a modern gathering of knightly custodians of lost golden treasure hordes or libraries of forgotten wisdom. Although, as I said, those were my dreams as a child, as I got older my expectations became more realistic, but my curiosity remained. Eventually I read more, I joined and I have enjoyed being a Freemason on so many levels. Although, I have decided to resign now, mostly due to the project I am working on now.
- Q2) As many know, the puzzle presented many challenges for all involved. It seemed at times the supposed Curse from Rennes le Chateau or the Mummy loomed over the puzzle. Would you want to share any thoughts on this? Have you been able to take anything away from the experience?
I have never heard of the term ‘Curse from Rennes le Chateau’ (lol), but I can relate to the metaphor. Although, I don’t believe in such ‘Curses’ as being a reality, I would have to admit, when I look back on events of the Maranatha (Time Monk) puzzle, there are such a list of extreme negative episodes that it is mathematically hard to really ignore the possibility that a curse exists.
I can give two excellent examples of bizarre ‘negative episodes’ that happened during the Maranatha (Time Monk) project. Coincidently, one relates to why Priory Publications (GB) Ltd was formed to publish the projected series and the other why Priory Publications (GB) Ltd was forced to cease trading.
Example 1: Prior to Priory Publications (GB) Ltd being formed to publish the books, the Team behind the project worked with an independent publisher, who loved the project. The agreement was, they would create the books and we would market them. We arranged a suitable timetable, arranged marketing, book distribution, and an internet presence. We knew little of publishing, and left the publishers to do their bit.
It was three months from the launch when all communication from the Publishing Company stopped. We called, wrote and emailed, but received nothing in reply. The company was not local, and all the Team had commitments, so it was another three weeks before someone was free to drive south and knock on the doors of the Publisher’s offices to find out what was happening. Hours before departing we received a postal response. In the letter it explained that the owner and Chief Editor had died and the company was suspended until the business was sorted out. This was tragic news both personally and commercially. With no company to get the project ready, we felt we had little choice but to start Priory Publications (GB) Ltd and do our best to meet the deadlines. Our inexperience in publishing and limited time frame, cost us dearly, but not as sad as losing a dear friend and supporter.
Between that moment and our last ‘negative episode’, it felt not a month went by without some problem or set back, e.g. a marketing company going bust in America (just after we had paid their engagement fee), book shipments held in quarantine due to ‘suspect’ wooden pallets, and a reader stating they were taking us to court due to their belief that in reading the book it had released a demon that was terrorising them!
Although, our last ‘negative episode’ is so astounding it led many Team members to be convinced that a genuine conspiracy existed that was attempting to thwart our project.
It happened just after we had managed to redesign the product and website to market the puzzle as ‘Time Monk’. We had regained the backing of major distributors in the USA, Australia and England, but this was mostly due to a huge investment into a filmed advert that was eventually to be released on Television. To test the advert and to utilise the internet, a massive $300,000 US dollar Google campaign was devised and agreed.
Due to the level of projected exposure and the amount agreed to be invested, the Managerial Team in England insured that all commercial preparations were ready. These included a new online secure internet purchase system and noted banking accounts to successfully trade in various currencies. Due to previous problems with Banks, we even went as far to ensure that all the correct signatories were listed with the Bank, so every member could react quickly with authority if the need arose. All systems were check and confirmed, by both the team and the banks. The preliminary Google tests worked well so we were good to launch. At this moment, I would like to state it is amazingly quick to spend $300,000 US dollars on Google, and we did.
With the Google campaign running, it was possible to track its success, by viewing the hourly statistics that Google provided. The Campaign was designed not to be intrusive, but was structured to peak people’s interest over a period of time, and that interest would result in them eventually buying a copy of the book. From the statistics matching Google’s tests and predictions, all seemed to be going well, and we prepared for orders. Then a Director went into a branch of our Bank, to cash a routine cheque to pay the first stage for a dispatch of books, only to have his signature rejected! In fact, swiftly over a period of three days, every signatory for the company was denied access to the account and funds. We obviously called in confusion, and the Bank stated that they would investigate; assuring us that it must be a technical error and will be corrected. Although the response from their investigation was that they could no longer discuss the matter us. The reason for this was that, to quote, ‘we have no record of any signatories on this account, and we can only discuss the account with a signatory’.
I am well aware of how bizarre this event sounds. It’s even stranger to experience it. It took six months and a lot of legal effort to get the Bank to even discuss the situation, let alone correct it. Eventually it came to light that the Bank’s process of dealing with signatories was to first remove a signatory, and then replace one. As such, it was later claimed by the Bank that in the process of us adding a new signatory, the application was declined due to the form being incorrectly filled in, so was rejected. And although the Bank accepted this failed signatory to sign and authorise internet banking, cheques, changes of addresses etc, when it was used to authorise other signatories to the account, those applications were also declined due to the original signatory not being authorised. This meant, that the Bank was systematically removing all the signatories and not replacing them, until the time came that no signatories existed on their records, and they froze the account until ‘we’ could correct the issue. The most amusing official letter we have from the Bank is their letter stating that they could not give us access to the account until an authorised signatory was added to the account, and that they would be happy to add such a signatory if it had an authorising signature on the form. They regretted they could not help or discuss the matter further with us, but no authorising signatory existed on their records! The Bank had claimed that they had notified us of all failed attempts, but strangely, although we have all the records and documents, from general mail to account statements, we have no copy of any returned application forms or warning letters.
It took over nine months to get a signatory back onto the account, although this also meant that our account had been frozen for three quarters of a year. We could not take orders or funds, and neither could we pay any funds from our account. The company survived on the personal funds of the Team and supporters. This basically covered the operational costs. We had to cancel all orders, as we could not pay for the storage, dispatch and replenishing of stock, as every cent we earnt was locked in an account we couldn’t use. In addition to that, we now also had a bill of $300,000 for a marketing campaign, which was wasted.
We authorised the Banking Ombudsman in England to investigate the matter, with our claim that the Bank had acted irresponsibly; not in just removing all the signatories, but also in authorising false signatories, proven accounts of misleading and false claims of communication. The latter points they up held, but the Ombudsman could not authorise compensation for two reasons. Firstly, that their power was limited to awarding only up to £100,000, and secondly that they could only demand compensation for ‘undeniable’ proven losses, and the charges of ‘marketing’ could not be included, because, no matter what the circumstances, ‘marketing’ cannot be proven beyond doubt, and even though we had to refund orders, we could not categorically prove that the marketing was a success or not. They only advised that we take the matter to court, but on legal advise, we were told it would take another six to eight months just to get the case to court, let alone winning and surviving any appeal. The company, nor its debtors, could survive that long with the debt that was incurred. Hence, the closing of the company and the project.
I do not believe in ‘Curses’ or such conspirator theories such as the Priory of Sion, or Masonic or Illuminati claims that they control world markets, commercial endeavours or governments. I certainly don’t believe any such organisation tried to hamper the humble endeavours of the Time Monk books. I acknowledge some people didn’t like what we were trying and went to great lengths to stop us, but in honesty we failed because of initial ignorance, global financial breakdown, and an insane amount of ‘Bad Luck’, if that is a‘Curse’, then it got us, lol.
- Q3) You shared on the tweleve forum a story about how some things in life must be experienced in order to appreciate its value. You said, and I quote, “Is this lesson not echoed in the legends of the grail-questing knights? The treasure didn’t fall to their feet, some accounts speak of decades of suffering and searching? How greater would the reward be if you actually lifted the veil to the Holy Grail, rather than someone simply holding it in procession? How could you feel the deep awesome sensation if it was passed to you as easily as a cup of coffee? Would you treasure it as much?” Words of wisdom, I must say, but, do you still believe the ‘Holy Grail’ can be discovered by all?
It’s nice to be able to speak more freely about what I believe about the Holy Grail. To me the Holy Grail is primarily two important things. Firstly, it is only a collection of words and those words have slightly changed through history. The second important thing about the words ‘Holy Grail’ is what those words imply to the person reading them. And that too has slightly changed through history.
For example:-
TV programs today, that claim to be investigating the Holy Grail, like to add to their list of specialists an English Professor of Medieval Literature, and they ask him, ‘Do you think the Holy Grail exists?’ Normally the camera shows the Professor smiling as if about to tell a child that the Easter Bunny isn’t real, and then he responds with, ‘No, the Holy Grail is nothing more than a literary device helped to engage the reader in the realm of Romantic Knightly tales. The invention of the Holy Grail is to give the reader something beyond their understanding, but allows their imagination to accept its existence as an item of reverence and power in a fantasy story. It exists there so that the reader can explain to themselves (normally on a subconscious level) the quality, or challenges, of the heroic characters of the story’.
To be honest, I agree with the Professors response to the question. Although, I think the program is asking the wrong person the right question. Remember the Professor smiled first, why is the answer so obvious to him, and not to us (those who are still willing to accept that the Holy Grail is/was real)?
Here is my argument:-
Let’s say we are another 1000 years on, and another program is being filmed. This time the topic is Star Trek, very much the collection of modern Grail Legends. Just as you had noble Knights on Quests, Star Trek too had valiant characters, members of a quasi-military organisation, attempting to bring peace, encountering beasts and facing moral and ethical challenges. Even the social acceptance and enthusiasm for this science fiction program echoes the passion that spread through all the classes of medieval Europe. So imagine a program being filmed about the authenticity of this program, 1000 years in our future.
Instead of a Professor of Medieval Literature, we could expect a Professor of Classical Television to be interviewed, and they could be asked ‘Does the Starship Enterprise really exist?’ That Professor, like our previous Professor of Medieval Literature, could also smile and say ‘No, the Starship Enterprise is nothing more than a literary device helped to engage the viewer in the stories of Star Trek. The invention of the Enterprise is to give the viewer something beyond his understanding, but also allows the viewers imagination to explain how Captain Kirk can travel millions of miles each week to engage in a fantasy story which allows him to show his quality in the challenges of his heroic character’.
To this statement we all may smile like this Professor, because, if you are a fan of Star Trek or not, we are all aware that there is no Spaceship called the Enterprise.
Or is there?
Star Trek started in the 1960’s, along with so many other science fiction programs, but it is the only one that has maintained its presence in our western culture through all the decades. Its success has been noted to its storylines, that the creator, Gene Roddenberry didn’t just have the basic weekly pattern of good versus evil, his stories addressed the confusion and controversy of the world that was around at his time. Using the medium of science fiction theatre, he managed to convey such aspects as racism, political freedoms, religious tolerance, all at a time when such material was taboo for Television, but were still focal questions in the western world. Star Trek became quickly a metaphoric representation of what humankind could achieve if it set aside prejudices and greed, and worked together for the sole purpose of the good of humanity. As such, the very word ‘Enterprise’ began to have a new meaning. The word became more poplar in our vocabulary. ‘Enterprise’ was no longer just a word to represent a ‘business-like endeavour’, it now conveyed the emotional attributes of a quest.
In 1972, less then ten years after the first showing of Star Trek, the Space Institute of America, NASA, engaged in a new revolutionary Space Program. It commissions the building of the world’s first re-useable spacecraft. The first test craft was named the Enterprise! As the word now epitomised what NASA wanted to achieve, and was the simplest way to convey that to both America and the World. Their ‘Enterprise’ was Kirk’s ‘Enterprise’. Indeed, the Space Shuttle didn’t have warp capabilities, and neither looked the same, but their metaphoric meaning was identical.
So, indeed, if you ask in a 1000 years time, a Professor of Classical TV if the Enterprise actually existed, then they just may say ‘No’. And their answer, to their realm of expertise is correct. But ask in a 1000years time a Professor of 20th Century Space Exploration if the ‘Enterprise’ existed, he may also smile, but his answer would be – Yes.
Hence my argument is; that the words ‘Holy Grail’, or originally just ‘Graal’, were more than likely nothing more than a literary device in a series of works that would later be known as the ‘Grail Romances’. Some of these stories may have been written with more of a hidden purpose, but even if so, their subsequent popularity was due to how they were grasped and accepted by the common man, not by any remote few who may have understood any esoteric wisdom encoded (as their interest alone could not have maintained or produced the level of interest that has kept the word Grail on our lips for a thousand years).
Therefore, just as the word ‘Enterprise’, in less then ten years, became the perfect name for the first Space Shuttle, so did the word ‘Grail’ become the perfect word to describe the secrets and treasures of individuals, guilds, and families of medieval Europe. And that is my explanation of what the Holy Grail is, it is a phrase, adopted by a group to become a common term to describe something they treasure and wish to keep secret. They think it powerful and beautiful, and they are truly custodians of it. This also means that there is probably more than one Grail, as it is likely that anyone who had a relic or secret through that period would have referred to their prize as ‘The Grail’. Our challenge is to be sure we are not mixing one person’s Grail with someone else’s, which I think has happened several times, not just in modern research, but in historic references too.
Damn, I hope that makes sense. As for the Grail of Maranatha? Yes, it is real and it is definitely historic.
- Q4) It would seem the ‘deep awesome sensation’ mentioned in question’s three quote could also be felt by walking into or studying the magnificent cathedrals. Have you walked into them? If so, what sense do the buildings, their construction, and their decorations, impress upon you?
Oh love Gothic Cathedrals! I really am lost in their majesty. Even as a boy, even more than walking around a castle, my mind would be imagining the masons carving, placing stone upon stone to create these trees of columns that stretch straight up to the sky, arching over to make a ceiling suspended almost above cloud height. It was easy for me to imagine the wooden scaffold binding around the structure, ladders disappearing to the heavens. Maybe that it is what Jacob’s story is actually a metaphor for, lol? Then besides all of that, I am then absorbed by the architecture. I am sure that most people reading this are aware of why gothic doorways are pointed arched? How the doorways are formed by two over lapping circles? One circle is meant to be heaven and the other Earth (or mortal life). The idea is, that the only way to move from Earth to Heaven is obviously through where the circles overlap, and that overlap is always were the Gothic main doorway to a Cathedral is.
- Q5) There are always never-ending questions to ponder. Sometimes, though, it is nice to just relax and enjoy our surroundings. Each person seems drawn to a different ‘place’. Personally, my family and I love the beach; others love hiking through the woods; while others go exploring ancient ruins. Where is it you (and your family) like to go? What ‘place’ seems to beckon you?
Simple, and a quick answer, which I am sure is a relief to everyone reading this. Scotland. The Highlands. I try and loose myself up there at least once a year, but must be the Highlands, Invernesshire is perfect. And it must be driven, all the way from London to Inverness.
- Q6) In the Time Monk article posted on the Arcadia website of Andrew Gough’s, you had mentioned that “the group will not offer any further comment” for insight into the puzzle. Have you re-considered this and are you planning on releasing new information concerning what you personally discovered during your research and study?
A tough one. I have reconsidered it, and others have, but they have not changed their minds. We had designed the Puzzle to be a fun and educational method of looking at history and this specific information. We thought it was clear and obvious that we weren’t doing it for financial gain – that was always commercially obvious with the prize fund give away, and the agreement to give a third to charity if we ever made a profit. Anyone with a calculator could work out how many books that would take, let alone factoring the cost of production, storage, marketing, operational cost etc. Even so, we knew some people wouldn’t like it simply because we knew not everyone likes crosswords or snowboarding. But we naively thought those who didn’t like it would just put it down and go off and do something they wanted to. We hadn’t expected the level of vicious hostility that came, and still does come. Even, last week, I still found ‘hate mail’ being sent.
Indeed, most people seemed to either like it, or accepted it wasn’t for them, and only a few persisted in the aggressive attacks. Although, those few did make normal life very difficult for us. The attacks weren’t limited to the team, but also their families, including the children. It was horrific. So understandably most of the team has closed the door permanently on the Maranatha experience. We had hoped that the release on Andrew Gough’s site would have been enough to give confirmation that the material we had was genuine and significant. Even so, we were still stunned by some people’s comments of ‘was that it?’ We honestly thought that the release would open the same doors as it opened for us, and people would discover the rest for themselves, and we could return to normal lives. It really is there to be seen, and yet I feel it has to be explained further.
As said, for most of the team, there is little feeling to engage in the project any further, but for me, I can’t just let it slip into obscurity, as it really means so much to me. I know many people lost something through this project, both members of the team and the readers, and, even though I lost so much too, I still feel guilty for what people have endured, so I am still trying to offer more. So to try and offer more I am attempting to complete a full ‘Step by Step’ explanation of the Article released on Andrew Gough’s site, and its implications, and a full explanation of the material that was encrypted in the Puzzle Book itself. To do this, I have to give up the last thing that is important to me, my Freemasonry, because, to fully describe what the discovery means, I have to say things about real Freemasonry that you would find hard to discover on the internet. So, at present, my time is taken up writing that article, and to try and balance what little integrity I have left against myself, Freemasonry and my desire to prove what was found.
A sincere thank-you Duncan. Your answers openly share and offer a different understanding and perspective to all that was involved in the Maranatha/Time Monk Project. I am sorry for the struggles and hardships the group experienced, and I feel almost uncomfortable to say how much I enjoyed and am grateful for the creation of the hunt; but it is the truth. I loved the hunt. I hope the group and yourself can take a small sense of worth from it.
(previous comments deleted upon request)
Nate,
I’m an ex-Mason. I resigned from my Lodge as I had been inactive for years (I joined a Lodge close to where I worked at the time and had friends/family there, I then moved jobs and could no longer make the trek. I could have simply joined a local Lodge again). No problem with resigning at all. No bogey men trying to slit my throat.
I also thought that D had been in touch with the Tweleve poster jlockest as jklile mentioned here? And presumably D has been in touch with jkile for her to have posted what she has here anyway?
As for the key being the diagram – I can buy that. BUT, I’d need someone to explain then how EACH sentence in the LRB fits in. I would also like to know how 5+ years of monthly clues fit. How does Bacon and Altantis fit?
Without the full explanation, then any ‘answer’ whether the PDFs or the Arcadia article seem a bit trite (?) to me.
It seems that two of the posters who still regularly post on Tweleve think that they have broken multiple layers of the LRB. Other posters also said they had the answer. The problem with all so far has been that either:
1) They can’t say what the solution is as it’s a personal journey that you have to take
2) There is no explanation then of what the solution means – and if it has a purpose what the purpose is.
So all in all, none of the solutions presented, hinted or intimated at , whether by D or others make any more sense than me just saying the answer is 432 or 681 or 23.5 or a banana……Wasn’t the point that in the L:RB, the answer was self evident? Didn’t one of the clues state:
‘….‘To find a description of what you are looking four. Three names for it are found in the books warning two its readers, before the encrypted words even start.
Be assured You will have no doubts when you find it, no uncertainties, it will reveal all that you need in the most amazing fashion……”
Again, [b][i]hindsight[/b][/i] makes things so clear. [b][i]But[/b][/i] without D’s exposes, how many people in 5 years would have worked on Poussin’s painting to get the diagram? How many would have found those shapes in the books images? I could find umpteen shapes presented in those LRB pictures – why would I assume that any three or four shapes are more relevant than any other shapes? [b][i]And[/b][/i] even if you had achieved the diagram, you couldn’t have found the solution as that [b][i]wasn’t[/b][/i] the solution that D said was correct on Tweleve. Slight catch 22 eh?
D’s Arcadia article seemed to me to be a slight publicity attempt. If the puzzle was dead – as appears to be the case and as stated on Tweleve, then why publish any more at all? If D wanted to give something back to the ‘faithful’ why not put that article on Tweleve rather than Arcadia – where the majority of LRB followers seemed to be? Why not explain the discrepancy in what was published as the solution on Tweleve to the article? Why promote the group to Cambridge? – that seemed a cynical attempt to give ‘university’ credence to the ‘discovery’. And wasn’t [i]’… Some people have claimed that ‘powerful’ individuals have made clandestine efforts to suppress the work. True or not,…’ [/i] again a brazen attempt to imply that the secret was so important that it had to be suppressed?
Lastly, the ‘…publish as a puzzle book with a big prize…’ gambit seemed a bit odd to me from the outset. What publisher in their right mind would turn down a [b][i]factual[/b][/i] book that actual revealed an amazing, history shaking secret that was provable?
Toooooooo many questions. A shame really that the Six Questions to D didn’t address any of the issues that concerned me!
I certainly can’t answer all your questions, Horatio. I asked one of the very same questions you did long ago and still don’t know the answer to, “why would any publisher turn down a book which revealed the ‘Grail.’
However, I do feel I can answer some and have been slowly working on sharing some of what I know when I get the time. For instance, (and I will begin to write more on this and post something later)…..In a book listed in the bibliography, (The Rosicrucian Enlightenment) there is the following interesting statement: (The book says it is from the 1725 Constitutions of Freemasons and is read to the admission of a new Brother)
“Adam, our first parent, created after the image of God, the great Architect of the Universe, must have had the Liberal Sciences, particularly Geometry, written on his heart; for ever since the Fall, we find the Principles of it in the Heart of his Offspring…..”
I read this book after the puzzle was over. Those who followed any of my work with the puzzle know I believed the puzzle led a person to find ‘Truth written on the Heart’. As the Key is ‘Geometry’, I feel the above paragraph is relatable to what I found working on the puzzle, and the Key does, if understood (which I will share), does mesh with the PDF. IMHO.
Sorry you didn’t like my Six Questions…..lol
I find it hardly surprising to hear that a publisher would turn down a book that reveals the secret of the Grail. If you admit that there is such a thing as something that’s been kept secret for centuries, it follows logically that the secret has been actively kept, and people have been actively refusing to talk about it and stopping people that tried to reveal it.
In fact, what you are saying here is simply that you don’t believe there is a secret that has been kept for centuries. It’s understandable. I believed the same, until I found that the secret of the Shugborough inscription had been kept for a long, long time.
J,
I don’t seem to be able to reply to your specific post (no reply option – is there a limit to the depth of threading?).
It wasn’t that I didn’t like your questions, but I would hazard a guess that every person who ‘did’ the LRB would have their own 6.
I think I have become more cynical since the demise of PPubs, the nature of its demise, the explanations on Tweleve (both of the demise and the solution) and the Arcadia article.
I particularly didn’t follow the ‘…the team made oaths of secrecy …so we can’t reveal more…’ bit on Arcadia, as if they made oaths before the LRB was published, then it shouldn’t have been published. And if they made the oaths after publication, then surely the puzzle should have been terminated then? The problem to me is that that smacked of ‘…there isn’t a solution, there isn’t any more…there was never a secret…but we can hide behind an oath to still pretend there is…’.
Much like the people who claim to have the solution to the LRB or RLC in general, drop hints and then when questioned say ‘…..oh, its a personal journey that we all have to take, and if I told you, then you wouldn’t make the journey…’. Hmmmmm.
Cynical, me?
On the question of oaths of secrecy: Hinting at a secret isn’t revealing it. And people through the ages seem to have used this loophole to reveal without revealing the Holy Grail.
Nate,
What can you actually say is ‘true’? Can you for a fact say that Poussin intentionally put a geometric shape in his painting, other than as a painting construct?
And you will NEVER know if you have the ‘truth’ – or at least the ‘truth’ as would have been revealed by the LRB – unless the LRB ‘truth’ is revealed. You may think you have it. You may guess, but you can never know unless it is confirmed that your truth is the LRB truth.
Messenger and Trax both thought they had the ‘truth’ – so do Thoth and Astree. Do their ‘truths’ agree with yours?
As for the Poussin painting:
A poster on the Arcadia spawned ‘Timemonk Article’ thread showed similar constructs in Vermeer’s (? I think from recollection) work.
The problem I have with the paintings and the Arcadia article, is that the only way to ‘prove’ the article is to have the actual painting as painted – difficult given that it’s locked up. No a reframed re-stretched version, not an image, not an image of a photo.
Also, given that the Poussin painting is in the Louvre, how did D and the team now about ‘grooves’ and construction marks on the painting. Is that ‘true’? Were those construction marks then used in the D ‘solution’? Did he take ‘other’ points unrelated to the ‘construction’ marks?
Arcadia :: Tweleve
The whole Arcadia article read like a promo to me – suddenly the group became the Cambridge Group fron the University City – which seemed to me to be implying it was somehow linked to the Uni. Secret oaths implied some deep dark secret linked to ‘secret’ organizations. Threats. It just read like a story board for a Tin Tin movie. Maybe it’s me.
Was the solution posted by D on Tweleve ‘true’? Was the announcement of the demise of PPubs on Tweleve ‘true’? Did the solution and article text on Arcadia then agree with the Tweleve announcements and solutions?
D said question everything, so it seems only right to question what D then said, especially as the D announcements and articles have such glaring differences and anomalies (remember UN law being blamed for the demise of PPubs on Tweleve – how does that fit?). So on Tweleve the demise was down to ‘people’ having a go at PPubs , and PPubs being unable to stop them – no oaths mentioned – in fact it implied that had they got the funds they would have continued and that the whole close down issue was completely out of their hands. Then Arcadia – the implication of the article, although it included the financial situation, veered of to become that the secret can’t be revealed because of ‘oaths’ people had taken. Bit of a difference to me.
Conclusion:
Personally, I don’t think it’s having a go at D, to have wanted (or still want) some clarification.
D and the group may have the solution. The PPubs blurb implied that the whole point was to get the secret to the biggest number of people. To reveal it. Wasn’t it?
But all this has been said before by one person or another on Arcadia and Tweleve.
Anwers to a couple of those questions, as I see it:
“Can you for a fact say that Poussin intentionally put a geometric shape in his painting, other than as a painting construct?”
If you are looking just at one painting, sure, it could just be that Poussin wanted to use that shape for his composition. But when Poussin keeps using that shape again and again, and other painters do it as well, we have a different story.
“Was the solution posted by D on Tweleve ‘true’?”
Definitely not. It’s at the very least badly incomplete, and some of the points of the solution may not be correct (I haven’t actually finished it because I became more interested in the bigger picture). But I have no doubt that the puzzle does have a solution that makes sense and is self-confirming.
“The PPubs blurb implied that the whole point was to get the secret to the biggest number of people. To reveal it. Wasn’t it?”
I don’t know, but my guess on this point is that they were lying, and there was never any intention to reveal the solution. I think the plan all along was to wind down the company as soon as it looked like somebody was close to the solution.
I’d like to make a Correction. When I menrioned Rumi’s Poem:
“When One (Sa) is united to the Core of another (Ham) …”
What I should have said is:
“When One (Ham) is united to the Core of Another (the Right Hand), to speak of that is Breath the Name HU,
Empty of Self, and filled with God.”
I am making the Correction for the reason that it was a mistake on my part to attempt to suggest that these two “Opposing Breaths” are in some way United (or Connected in the same way). Closer to the truth, these two breaths act more like “Rival Brothers.” I would use the Analogy of the Cup being “Half Empty” to describe the “Ham (Hum) Breath, however that has the potentual to be misleading, too.
By this, I mean that we should NOT touch the Nose in any way. That is kind of like the Bee which stings us because we have sought after the Honey. At least it’s NOT my belief that all of these notions of the CUP and
FILLING the CUP are the WAY of God. The WAY of God is to be EMPTY of the SELF (as Breath), kind of like the word WHO.
It’s my belief that it is the Serpent (Sa Breath) who attemps to trick us into filling the cup, making us believe that the cup is filled with Vitality (or Nectar), when we are only swallowing down Poison. One way of understanding this is that the Serpent is so obsessed with eating, that it will attempt to swallow down anything whole without attempting to digest what it understands, first. The Serpent reasons “Fruit (grapes) is like Wine. It all sounds good to me.” So the serpent attempts to swallow down his meal, and then vomits it up later.
From the perspective of the SA Breath, the Serpent is very crafty. When he’s not trying to get us to fill the Cup, then he’s reasoning that either the cup has to be filled “Half Way,” or that “like needs to compensate like
In some way.” But anything that becomes a meal for the serpent becomes poison for us.
How can we prevent the Serpant from biting us (on the Sa Breath)? It is kind of like understanding the fact that “No Action” should be taken. Just as the serpent uses it’s mouth to snag a meal, the thought that we have to use our hands in some way to snag a meal is likely to occur too. However, it is my understanding that there is no way to do this without getting bit.
Whether filling the cup is the way of God or not depends in part on your idea of what “finding God” means.
I suppose I could describe myself as a Holy Grail agnostic, meaning that even though I have some ideas about what the Holy Grail is (like everyone that’s looking for it, I guess), my main drive is trying to figure out what it is exactly that everybody is making so much fuss about. If during my research I found evidence that my ideas are wrong, I’d be happy to change my idea about what the Holy Grail is, but I’d still be looking. At least until I felt I understood clearly why so many people have thought it’s so important. I have the impression that for most people, if they realised that the Holy Grail was something quite different from what they think, they’d probably give up on the search then and there.
I don’t know if this makes any difference to you or not, but the cup is supposed to be filled with blood.
Actually, hinduism does mention things like Bees and Honey. For example, there the “honey doctrine” in the Rig Veda. I am including the link, but be forwarned that it is incredibly boring, The moment that you read it, you will understand why I abandoned Hinduism in favour of “Bible Understanding.” I have also read somewhere that the Hindu God Krishna was depicted as a Bee, as some reference to the APIS (Bee God).
Likewise, the Egyptians had all of these beliefs that Honey was the “food of the Gods,” which kind of supports
The teachings of Hinduism. However, Hindu works such as The Rig Veda, The Upanishads, the Yajur Veda, etc. Make for some pretty tough reading, and rarely do those works inspire me as much as the Poetry of Rumi and some of the Persian works such as “The Rubayat of Omar Kayan.”
However, every Religion has it’s little Gems from which I learn a great deal. One of my favorites is the Story of “The Churning of the Great Ocean” where the Gods and the Demons were engaged in this tug of War for Nectar (Amrita). To truly understand Religion takes a long time. I spent some 15 years studying things like Hinduism and Yogananda. However I never really understood anything because I would always attempt to understand things too litterally.
A lot of people don’t understand the fact that it is virtually impossible to attempt to understand Religion through reading Books (like I did in the early days). If it weren’t for the Internet, I wouldn’t understand but a fraction of the things that I understand today. The Internet has a Search Engine that allows you to learn as much as you can about “one particular subject,” which makes it the most powerful learning tool known to man, especially when it comes to a subject like Religion.
I would even use the Zohar’s Website Search Engine to search about one particular subject just so that I could compare what the Zohar had to say about that same subject in different places (in the Zohar). For me, that is the Secret to learning very quickly (comparing verses that revolve around the understanding of the same subject). Then, if I believe that I am on to something, i can just move from Zohar to Google. Or I can move from Google to Zohar or even to Bible or Rumi or Hinduism. My inspiration always seems to have this special knack for knowing where to go.
I credit that to the fact that if you attempt to study one subject in depth, that always has this way of leading you exactly to the next clue (as to what you need to understand next). Often, it is something that you have learned about in the past, but you didn’t understand it back then because understood it in some type of genreal way. But now that you are ready to understand that thing in a “New Way,” you begin to recognize that
All of that time that you spent reading books was never wasted. There was always some puepose for you having read about that back then. That was simply to familiarize yourself with some subject that you must attempt to understand in some new way, today.
For example, Bees and Honey. The poet Virgil wrote about Bees in “The Ecclogues.” Others such as Plieny believed that by studying the behavior of bees, we could understand the message of the Bible about Bees better. Rumi mentions that Bees seal their Sweets (honey) in CELLS (Hexagonal shaped Cells). However, when I think of CELLS, usually that conjurs to mind some type of Prison.
Then again, I had to learn to mistrust in order to learn. And that is why something can seem so SWEET to one person, and yet so SOUR to me. For me, the Bee is like a creature of War. You mess with it’s Honey, and you will get stung. Does this mean that I understand Honey? Perhaps not, but I have always learned the valuable lesson that it pays to be mistrusting, to a certain extent.
It’s the same with Yoganada. For example, he often mentions “Seclusion (the Cell) is the Price of Greatness.”
Perhaps that is true, But it is only true in the sense that you can figure out some way to escape from that Prison (Or Cell). Likewise, when he mentions the word Price, I am thinking “Penalty.” It is very easy to walk into a snare. For me, I liken a snare to a type of curse. I really don’t like touching my ears unless I can do it in some type of meaningful way. For I have had to learn the painful lesson that of all of the senses, the one that is most associated with Fear is Sound. However, if we can learn how to “Cry Out” in the “Right Way,” it has the potentual for being extremely thearapeautic.
Oh yeah. The link. Sorry:
http://mobile.ishwar.com/hinduism/holy_upanishads/chhandogya_upanishad/part_03.html
The “Zohar Search” Website is not always easy for me to find. Despite the fact that I have it bookmarked it on my Iphone, I just clicked onto the link, and it is not working. However, about 6 months ago, it did work (on my Iphone).
It is possible that this link still works on a regular computer, but I cant check because I don’t have the Internet at home, just on my phone. I have had better luck finding the Website at the Library where they have Wi-fi. I don’t have the Website bookmarked on my laptop, but In the past, I have gone to Google, and entered the Search Term “Zohar Search.” And where you see “Zohar M” pop up, that is the Website with the Search Engine.
That (Zohar M) is the same Website I have bookmarked on my Iphone which I will give you, but I still am not sure if it works on a Regular Computer, or if they moved the Website to somewhere else. My biggest fear is that they might have eliminated the Website alltogether being that they have rebuilt the old website over the years. However, here is the link just in case it does
work for you:
http://www2.kabbalah.com/ru/index.php/p=zohar/search
I am not even sure where that “Search Engine” comes from. I have always believed that it came from this Website (which they keep changing), but even back then, I tried to find the Search Engine at the “Home Website,” but never could. I could only find it through a Google Search. Here is the link to where you can read the “Entire Zohar.”
http://www.zohar.com/terms/zohar_body/127
However, I don’t know if you remember it, but the old website had a very different look to it. The “Search Engine” had the exact same look as the old Website had (where you could read the entire Zohar). The old website was black with white text.
I got my use out of it while I could because back then, I was always suspicious of the fact that they would remove it because they were giving others too much of a good thing for free. So I did a lot of Searches, copied the results to a Microsoft Word Document, and archived the info for future reference. The same thing has happened to Crosswalks Interlinear Bible at their website. They removed it, but I found an Interlinear Bible at Studylight’s Website, but now they have changed that too so that the ONLY word that you can click onto is the SEARCH word. You used to be able to click onto ALL of the words. I figured that was coming, too.
What surprises me is that they ever provided
Others with that service to begin with.
The “Death List”‘ I find to be amusing. Just a lot of people taking Religion way too seriously. People killed for what they “don’t say,” I can relate to a little more than people killed for what they “do say.” Ha Ha! Those cats who don’t like the fact that other people leak secrets, I could care less about. It’s not like I stole anything from them, anyway.
And if others should decide to steal ideas from me, then I could hardly consider that stealing. It’s not like Wisdom isn’t some kind of “ever-changing” experience, anyway. Unfortunately, this is life, so it’s usually the person’s “ace up his sleave” that gets the person shot. Perhaps this is Nate’s way of telling me “Mark, you had better keep an eye out on that “crowd” that is cheering on the Beastmiester. Somewhere in that crowd, there is a person who is not smiling.” Ha Ha!
As a believer in Christ I find this puzzle so much more intersting and deeper because of my belief.
I also think that if Nate and Mark got together they could come up with a puzzle as great as this one, where it would have a lot of history and writings taken from very old manuscripts and have a mystery including the “genesis” and the spirit world then and now.
You underestimate Maranatha. The puzzle was made by its authors, but the content it’s based on has taken centuries to build.
Onefeather (One father), I am honored that you would think so highly of me. But I prefer to think of Religion as being some escape from life and all of it’s burdens. So whenever I hear another person say “you do,” I am thinking Yada (Know)! Yada (Know)! Here I am some “free spirit,” and the rest of the world just wants to put me in some cage. Well, O.K. Time to stick your finger in that cage and pet Polley’s Sweat little head, whille he sharpens his beak on the cuddlebone! Ha Ha!
Has anyone heard any information on when Duncan’s new article will be out? It’s been a while since this article was published.
Hi Taddeo,
I haven’t heard much more specifically about it. Thanks for visiting the site and your interest.
Just to say thank you to Mark and Nate for the reply. It is good to be doing what one enjoys but it is ok to think maybe one day in time someone will write another mystery puzzle[smile]. I have always thought that it may have something to do with the mixing of species that went on in Genesis, so maybe it could be some Knowledge with DNA. I love mysteries so I will contuine to work at this one. Thanks again for all the post for all of us to read. And I am female [ as I know alot think it is a male name].
Blessings.
I can’t help but wonder if the Maranatha curse was caused by people who understood the meaning of the puzzle and didn’t want it to come to light.
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I understand now a lot better the need for a quest. There is, of course, that some people would not be all that excited by the answer if they were just told what the Grail is. But it’s also that other people would have very negative reactions. The quest is a means of ensuring that people approach the Grail with the appropriate respect.
I’ll give my answer to a couple of the questions above, in case that’s useful to anyone:
“Do you believe the ‘Holy Grail’ can be discovered by all?”
Note how Duncan avoided answering that question. I think the answer is: No, it can’t.
“What sense do cathedrals, their construction, and their decorations, impress upon you?”
Let’s not forget that cathedrals are temples. Christian temples, to be sure. Like all temples, they represent to some extent a people’s concept of the universe. Learning about cathedrals, how they are orientated, their shape, etc, you learn what the people who built them believed about the universe. And that’s a very useful thing to learn, if you are looking for the Holy Grail.